Inspiring Wonder: Introduce a Girl to Engineering Today

The theme of this year’s National Engineers Week, February 18-24, is “Inspiring Wonder”. This week is about promoting awareness for our industry and inspiring the next generation by helping them to wonder if engineering could be in their future, too.

In honor of Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, part of National Engineers Week, I sat down with some of the women engineers here at Wright-Pierce. I asked them “what inspired you to become an engineer?” and they told me a bit about their path to helping engineer a better environment.

Lyndsay Butler, PE

“Growing up, I loved earth science classes and have always had a passion for the outdoors and an interest in understanding natural processes. Pursuing civil engineering was my way of marrying the problem solving and investigative aspects of engineering with exploration of our environment. Now every day I get to do what I can to contribute to making our environment better, and the projects I work on have a direct impact on communities.”

Kathleen Gierok, PE

“When I was young I always had the tendency to take things apart and put them back together—I think it’s in my biology as my family came from steel workers and machinists (although, I am the daughter of two language teachers so figure that one out!). In high school my favorite class was trigonometry with a great teacher, Mrs. Skop, further continuing my tendency toward math and science. So, in college I thought I’d pursue my interest in buildings and houses and study structural engineering. But instead, I really connected with how vital and life-saving providing clean drinking water and treating dirty water is, so I went into environmental engineering and the rest is history.”

Christine Kurtz, PE

“The hands on, ‘how does it work’ problem solving piece of engineering always interested me and I had a natural tendency toward math and problem solving—I just seemed to understand those more technical applications with ease. In school I went to Lafayette where I was able to take both architecture and arts classes, this blended my interests well and led me down the path of engineering and to where I am today!”

Stephanie Hubbard, PE

“My family owned a construction company, so from the get-go I was interested in that side of things—I was growing up around the equipment. I knew I wasn’t going to be in the trenches as a contractor but I liked thinking through how everything came together from the ground up. Being on the engineering side, especially as a civil engineer, I get to be a part of making those cool things happen, and I know I’m doing what I was meant to do.”

Are you interested in exploring a career in engineering? Take a look at our Current Openings or feel free to contact us today to learn more about careers at Wright-Pierce.